Three types of appliance are at present used for people having motor handicaps of the trunk. A first type essentially comprises a rigid or semi-rigid structure encircling the trunk, such as a plastics shell or a corset of metal, leather or a composite of fabric and steel. A second type comprises a rear and/or lateral support cooperating with a corset in order to support the user, and is generally known as a "Lyon corset", whilst the third type comprises elastic corsets encircling the trunk in a homogeneous manner.
These known devices only incompletely satisfy, or do not satisfy at all, the function of reactivating the motor units of the user's trunk, and do not therefore enable the recovery of the motricity or the recovery of sensitivity in the trunk if this has been lost.